Introduction

The Radeon RX 500 series have come out to play in the
mainstream graphics space armed with higher frequencies.
AMD's chief aim is to ensure that these GPUs, based on the existing RX
400 series, offer enough extra performance to make the choice between
them and GeForce GTX 1060 easier for the consumer looking to
spend between £150 and £250.

Having seen RX 580 strut its stuff in the form of the Sapphire Nitro+ OC, we now turn our
attention to the cheaper RX 570. This time around, it's PowerColor who
gets the AIB nod.

RX 570 is reckoned to have a base TDP of 150W that powers the
2,048
shaders at peak cores speeds of 1,244MHz. PowerColor sees the whole RX
570 proposition differently, especially with its Red Devil iteration.
Heck, the company believes that heavy-duty cooling is the order of the
day now, as last year's RX 470 version of the same name was a much more
restrained affair.

What
you get now is a triple-fan card sat on top of a mainstream
GPU.
Measuring 310mm long and 128mm high, it thankfully remains a dual-slot
card. We're not sure why PowerColor would go so overt on cooling,
particularly as the underlying GPU is clocked in at 1,320MHz, or just
50MHz higher than the dual-fan RX 470.

Build quality is reasonable and the backplate offers some more
rigidity to a card that weights just south of a kilo. The trio of fans switch off at low loads but the under-load noise is somewhat different as you will see later on.

Memory
speed, meanwhile, is kept at a default 7,000MHz, and knowing this is an
RX 570 card, there's 4GB of GDDR5 memory onboard. Nvidia and AMD's
partners have different thoughts on how to present and cool competing
cards, with EVGA's GTX 1060 3GB almost half the size.

Those who don't want to get so adventurous in size can opt for the
PowerColor's Red Dragon instead, offering a
lower core speed but smaller form factor.

The Red Devil logo lights up when the card is operational, but
PowerColor, perhaps sensibly, avoids any RGB lighting. Power
is sourced by a single 8-pin connector wedged between the heatsink and
shroud, and it's capable of delivering 225W of power, which should be
enough even with this RX 570 is overclocked.

A problem facing all board partners is price. AMD wants to
mark out
the RX 5x0 series as genuine improvements over last year's cards... but
that's not the case. The upshot of such an approach is that RX 570 4GB
pricing is currently comparable to RX 480 4GB, meaning that you receive less
performance for more money.

PowerColor's over-the-top card comes
in at £190 right now, consistent with the RX
480 4GB - a card that has more shaders and, oftentimes, a higher peak
core speed. Such pricing concerns are somewhat out of PowerColor's
hands, mind.

A single HDMI, a trio of DisplayPort and the ever-popular dual-link DVI
make an appearance on the back. Let's now see how it performs against
the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB and 6GB duo.